ESPN announces ESPN-W.

ESPN today announced newest addition to their already spiralling line up. Channel ESPN-W will debut on April 1 this year for paid subscribers and will be fully dedicated to broadcasting tennis matches of Williams sisters. "ESPN-W has figured out what US sports lovers wants" says T.Hissucks, director,Fully Rotten Broadcasting, a marketing research firm."This is a classic case of demand exceeding the supply.US Tennis lovers need more Williams tennis matches and ESPN-W aims to fill in that void.It is almost impossible for any other channel to pull this off" notes H.Aplessvuwer of the Tennis times magazine.

ESPN Tennis Program director Wewil kilu indicated that viewers can expect non stop williams matches interspersed with guest appearances by Lisa Raymond, Vania King, Kevin Kim Andy Roddick and other Us tennis players.Mr.Kilu also indicates that the channel will air special shows and one minute clinics. "In our previews we have seen tremendous response from our audience for 'Shove it down the throat' and 'Whack a linesmen' shows. With ESPN-W , Audience will never have to search for a Williams Tennis match."It doesnt matter what tournament is going on and which other players are in the line up.We will find out a way to show a williams match.If Williams sisters arent playing singles,double, exhibition or even practising, we will dust off the old tapes" confirms Kilu.

According to financial firm DowntheSink, ESPN-W will have an estimated viewership of 0.000000000000000001% and will be fully profitable in 10000000 years.

However not everyone is warm to ESPN's efforts. A law suit is being filed by TWforum's Williams fans.The law suit alleges that ESPN has been doing this kind of programming for several years and ESPN-W is merely an effort to make more money.Several members of the forum independently confirmed to our correspondent that "ESPN's definition of tennis is Williams sisters.I dont remember seeing any other tennis player on ESPN and the other day i didnt realize it was Roger Federer playing.ESPN quickly corrected the mistake and switched back to a Venus match for everyone's relief. I am not even sure how ESPN-W will be any different from ESPN". Commenting on this lawsuit spokesperson for ESPN ,I.gnoreU indicated that ESPN-W is a result of ESPN listening to user needs. "With ESPN-W , we can now occassionally show other US players on ESPN2. Granted we will still fill ESPN2 with Williams matches but we plan on allocating atleast 1% of airtime for other US players and 0.005% of airtime for Non Us Players. It is a tremendous oppurtunity for US audience to see other players play tennis".

As much as we hate it, we have to accept the fact that the Williams sisters bring in higher ratings for ESPN than men's matches. I don't know why, but it seems to be a fact. If ESPN thought that Roddick would get higher ratings, I guarantee you that ESPN would have stayed with the Roddick match. It will always be about the dollars. It is the same reason why women's figure skating is so popular on network TV. It brings in the dollars.

It doesn't say anything about coverage of crazy-ass Richard Williams. I'm not paying for it unless I am guaranteed video of Richard Williams calling some one a racist every 1/2 hour.

Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing even before I scrolled down to your post! We also need extended coverage of the Williams sister's off court activities, to show off how talented they are at fashion design, and acting for example. An occasional Mary Carillo piece would make me jump for joy as well.

Truthfully, and I'm not racist, hell, I love NFL football. But, if the Williams sisters weren't black, they wouldn't be shoved down our throats. ESPN caters to black viewers, that's where their viewership and therrefore sponsorship money comes from, with maybe exception of the red-neck, beer guzzling NASCAR fan.

Click to expand...

Including the gross generalizations, your post is completely absurd. Black viewers make up a relatively small % of ESPN ratings. The Williams sisters garner higher ratings (for a tennis match, truth be told tennis is hardly a well watched sport in America) because they are and have been a compelling story - and happen to have brought a new level of power and athleticism to the sport.

Some of it may have to do with race, only because the Williams sisters were 'different' and came to dominate tennis. If tennis were a traditionally lilly green sport and the Williams were blue it would be a similar story.

The same would hold true for any sport where the perceived status quo is challenged and especially if it is changed: Tiger Woods and golf for example or Yao Ming in the NBA. Or if a white American came to dominate heavy weight boxing or a black American did very well in Nascar. Its just a good story of the under-dog achieving; we Americans love it.

Including the gross generalizations, your post is completely absurd. Black viewers make up a relatively small % of ESPN ratings. The Williams sisters garner higher ratings (for a tennis match, truth be told tennis is hardly a well watched sport in America) because they are and have been a compelling story - and happen to have brought a new level of power and athleticism to the sport.

Some of it may have to do with race, only because the Williams sisters were 'different' and came to dominate tennis. If tennis were a traditionally lilly green sport and the Williams were blue it would be a similar story.

The same would hold true for any sport where the perceived status quo is challenged and especially if it is changed: Tiger Woods and golf for example or Yao Ming in the NBA. Or if a white American came to dominate heavy weight boxing or a black American did very well in Nascar. Its just a good story of the under-dog achieving; we Americans love it.

Click to expand...

So you're saying watching the Williams sisters would be less interesting if they were boring old white players?

So you're saying watching the Williams sisters would be less interesting if they were boring old white players?

Click to expand...

Uhm yeah...

Still would be somewhat interesting because they are sisters who have dominated. But, since tennis has been seen in the past as a 'lilly white' sport... seeing two black women who are sisters dominating it at one time or another makes it that much more interesting of a story-line.

Still would be somewhat interesting because they are sisters who have dominated. But, since tennis has been seen in the past as a 'lilly white' sport... seeing two black women who are sisters dominating it at one time or another makes it that much more interesting of a story-line.

Click to expand...

So you like them because of the color of their skin. Does that mean I'm allowed to not like them because they're black?

ESPN will show matches that casual viewers will watch... and unfortunately, most of the potential viewership are not tennis fans and do not really follow the game. So they will watch players based on name recognition and celebrity status. The Williams sisters have that. To their credit, some of it is earned by being pretty darned good tennis players. And of course some of it is the back-story, media attention over the years, etc.

The sad reality is that if for example Paris Hilton was playing an exhibition match of some kind, it would have a good chance of drawing higher ratings than many real matches.

I can just imagine that when venus was serving for the match against li na the true tennis fans of america were going thank you and maybe even saying a few lleyton hewitt style come ons finally we will get to see another match you were thinking and then ofcourse li na breaks back and eventually wins 7-5 in the third. I can here the groans from here

I didn't see this before the bump just now. When I saw ESPN-W I thought they were seriously creating a channel for womens sports. I thought great, now we don't have to waste valuable time on ESPN or The Deuce showing womens basketball games. All that would be left is ESPN-P to take the poker games off the main channels.

ESPN today announced newest addition to their already spiralling line up. Channel ESPN-W will debut on April 1 this year for paid subscribers and will be fully dedicated to broadcasting tennis matches of Williams sisters. "ESPN-W has figured out what US sports lovers wants" says T.Hissucks, director,Fully Rotten Broadcasting, a marketing research firm."This is a classic case of demand exceeding the supply.US Tennis lovers need more Williams tennis matches and ESPN-W aims to fill in that void.It is almost impossible for any other channel to pull this off" notes H.Aplessvuwer of the Tennis times magazine.

ESPN Tennis Program director Wewil kilu indicated that viewers can expect non stop williams matches interspersed with guest appearances by Lisa Raymond, Vania King, Kevin Kim Andy Roddick and other Us tennis players.Mr.Kilu also indicates that the channel will air special shows and one minute clinics. "In our previews we have seen tremendous response from our audience for 'Shove it down the throat' and 'Whack a linesmen' shows. With ESPN-W , Audience will never have to search for a Williams Tennis match."It doesnt matter what tournament is going on and which other players are in the line up.We will find out a way to show a williams match.If Williams sisters arent playing singles,double, exhibition or even practising, we will dust off the old tapes" confirms Kilu.

According to financial firm DowntheSink, ESPN-W will have an estimated viewership of 0.000000000000000001% and will be fully profitable in 10000000 years.

However not everyone is warm to ESPN's efforts. A law suit is being filed by TWforum's Williams fans.The law suit alleges that ESPN has been doing this kind of programming for several years and ESPN-W is merely an effort to make more money.Several members of the forum independently confirmed to our correspondent that "ESPN's definition of tennis is Williams sisters.I dont remember seeing any other tennis player on ESPN and the other day i didnt realize it was Roger Federer playing.ESPN quickly corrected the mistake and switched back to a Venus match for everyone's relief. I am not even sure how ESPN-W will be any different from ESPN". Commenting on this lawsuit spokesperson for ESPN ,I.gnoreU indicated that ESPN-W is a result of ESPN listening to user needs. "With ESPN-W , we can now occassionally show other US players on ESPN2. Granted we will still fill ESPN2 with Williams matches but we plan on allocating atleast 1% of airtime for other US players and 0.005% of airtime for Non Us Players. It is a tremendous oppurtunity for US audience to see other players play tennis".